The Goggin Name

The origin and history of the Goggin Surname

The "Goggin" Surname...

The history and genealogy of the Goggin surname, its origins, meanings and ancestry.

Information on the family history, heritage and ancestry of the Goggin surname and its genealogy.

This website provides information on the derivation, ancestry and meaning of the
Goggin surname and its history and origins. There are also pages with facts regarding Goggin ancestors and the Goggin name around the world.

The Goggin name

The motto associated with the Goggin and Cogan family heraldry is:

Motto:
Non metuo
Translation: I do not fear

For the Welsh origin of the Goggin family name, the motto is
Constans fidei, which means constant to honour.
More details can be found at the page Coat of arms
In September 2002 there were 689 occurances of the Goggin surname
in the UK and it was the 8,849th ranked name in size (source: Office of National Statistics)
In the USA, in 1990, the name Goggin ranked as number 10,353 and by 2000 there were 2,513 occurances
of the name and it was then ranked at 11,492 (source: US Census bureau)

News...

A group to enable Goggin researchers to ask and answer Goggin related queries has been created on Linkedin at the Goggin Linkedin Group

The March 2012 edition of the genealogy magazine, Who Do You Think You Are?
has an article on Thames Watermen and features the lighterman apprenceship certificate
and details of Charles James Goggin. Details of Charles' life and career with copies of all of his ligherman and waterman certificates are
at Lightermen.

The origin of the Goggin name

The Goggin name is Celtic in origin and goes back to the parish of Cogan which
is in the diocese of Llandaff, in Glamorganshire, Wales. Cogan is a place near Cardiff in Wales.

This original Goggin family, like most of the South Welsh colonists, was probably of Flemish origin.

It is said that the Goggin ancestors can be traced back to Cardigan where they were seated before
the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The first of the family to arrive in
Ireland was the famous Milo de Cogan who came to Ireland as Strongbow's
right-hand man in the Anglo-Norman Invasion of 1172. Milo was granted huge
estates in Cork by Henry II. He left no son to carry on the name so the
name was practically extinct by the 17th century, but luckily enough
minor branches under the name Goggin survived. Further details on
Milo de Cogan can be found on the Cogan pages

The family was among the leaders of the invasion of Cork, Ireland; so
most must descend from Richard de Cogan who lived in the early
thirteenth century. Richard also possess lands around Bray in Wicklow
and obtained lands in Galway at the time of the Connacht invasion, which
the family lost during the fourteenth century. Also, in that
century the greater share of the Cogan estate in Cork was overrun but
they retained lands south of Cork until the seventeenth century.

Evidence of settlement and occupation of Ireland can be shown to
exist since 6,000 BC. Evidence shows the first settlers were Mesolithic hunters.
About 795 AD the Norsemen began invading Irish villages and towns during these
invasions they seized and fortified the ports of Dublin and Annagassan in 838AD.
They Norsemen were expelled by Aed Finnliath King of Ireland between 862-879AD.

The family name Goggin originally was used as a regional appellation. Regional
surnames stem from place names including rivers, countries, and man made
features such as buildings, crossroads and many other objects. A
person could be given a name indicating a place which was readily
recognised. In this case, the surname Goggin was used for a person from the
township of Cogan in county Cork, Ireland.

Records of the name Goggins indicate there were early bearers who became
instrumental in influencing the development and direction of their country and
held positions of power and authority during their lifetimes which enabled them
to hold sway in the decision making process in events of national importance.

Early records of the surname Goggin include Patrick Goggin from Goganrath in county Cork
appears in the Hearth Money Rolls. Hearth Money Rolls were a tax of two shillings
on every hearth or fire place in a dwelling. In the year 1663 a list was compiled of all
households liable to pay this tax, together with the number of fireplaces in their dwellings
and their obligations to the crown.